Brood Mother
by Orange Lantern Tsume
Summary: Short and hasty, based off a TV episode. A species of alien comes to Earth, kidnaps Rogue, and the XMen have to save her. But the aliens have special plans for Rogue. One chapter deal, DONE & OVER! R&R.


Brood Mother  
  
By Blackheart Syaoran  
  
AUTHOR: This was based off a TV episode of Fox's X-Men Season Three, which was a very pathetic season save for at least this one episode.  
  
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Chapter 1: Visitors  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The alien ship, shaped like a giant, maroon fish, "swam" through space, unaffected by the cold vacuum around it. Inside its body, alien beings hurried to finish any last-minute preparations for their task. Earth was filled with superhuman people that defended others or simply destroyed things. The aliens needed to be ready for anything.  
  
The fish vessel passed through the atmosphere lazily, enjoying the brief feeling of warmth it received from doing so and then it pushed on, streaking toward the ground. A resounding boom and the ground shook as well, the only real signs of the aliens' arrival.  
  
The vessel's mouth opened wide, and the aliens exited in pairs, six in all, surveying their surroundings.  
  
"A good choice to land at," said one alien. "The humans hate heat such as is found in the desert. We should be unnoticed for a while."  
  
"Hurry and set to work," ordered a second alien, and the remaining four returned to the vessel's interior to do their instructor's bidding. "She will be a valuable asset."  
  
"Yes," hissed the first alien.  
  
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"Rogue," Jean said. "Got a letter here from down south."  
  
"Really?" Rogue asked, stunned. No one ever wrote to her from there anymore. "Wonder who it's from."  
  
"You could open it and find out," Jean suggested jokingly.  
  
Rogue decided to play that for what it was worth. She mock-struggled with opening the envelope. "I can't open it! My superhuman strength has vanished! I'm useless to the X-Men now!"  
  
Jean rolled her eyes and left the room, Rogue giggling at her own lame joke. She opened the letter for real and gasped. She read it quickly, staring at the signature in total disbelief: It was from her old flame, Cody, the first person she had ever drained.  
  
'He wants to meet me?' she wondered. 'As long as we don't touch, no reason why not.' Rogue headed up to her room, eager to change into civilian clothes and see her old love. As she did, she wondered what he looked like, and whether he still liked her or not. Of course, there was bound to be some bad luck to this, due to her draining him all those years ago.  
  
Shaking her head, Rogue changed into a pink shirt and blue pants, trying to look good while covering all her deadly skin. She didn't want to hurt anyone, of course.  
  
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'Where is he?' Rogue wondered as she looked around the crowd, trying to spot Cody. He had asked her to meet him outside the Salem Center Movie Theater, but she didn't see him anywhere and supposed that either she was early, he was late, or that there was another factor entirely to it.  
  
"Rogue!" Cody called to her, running across the street. He wore a simply white shirt and blue pants, looking a little like her. She blushed at the thought, and greeted him.  
  
"Good to see you, Rogue," he said cheerily. "You haven't changed at all!"  
  
"Neither have you, sugar. You look the same as you did on..."  
  
"Never mind that," Cody said dismissively. "That was then, and I don't blame you for something you can't control. You need to recognize an accident when it happens. Now let's have some fun!"  
  
"I guess," she said as he led her around.  
  
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Chapter 2: Meeting and Talking  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"So where have you been?" Cody asked.  
  
"After you went into the coma, I just ran," Rogue began. "I didn't have any home anymore, my dad kicked me out. I just wandered here and there, and eventually this lady took me in, raised me like her own. I still call her mom. But that's the good part of that portion."  
  
"What's the bad part?"  
  
"I kind of became a mutant terrorist. I nearly killed someone, put them in a coma like I did with you. I wanted to let go so badly that time, but Mama kept telling me to hold on, to drain her as much as possible. I got all her powers permanently, and a huge part of her trapped in my head. After that, I started having hallucinations about her, so I left and came to my current friends for help. Kind of ironic, considering I tried to kill them from time to time."  
  
Cody whistled. "That's a big story. Sorry about all the problems. You sound like you need to cut loose."  
  
Rogue laughed. "I do."  
  
"Well, a night on the town cheers any girl up, so come on!" He stood up, pulling her along again.  
  
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The first cop looked at his partner. "You don't suppose we'll get famous for this, will you?"  
  
"Famous?" the other laughed. "Like hell. People'll think we're frauds!"  
  
"But there ARE a lot bunch of cults that believe even crappier shit!"  
  
"Oh, all right."  
  
They had just started toward the giant fish vessel when the first alien rose out of the ground, having been hiding under the sand, listening to them.  
  
"So," it rasped. "These are humans."  
  
"Jesus!" one cop gasped.  
  
The alien stalked forward, ready to dispatch them both.  
  
"Shoot it!"  
  
Gunfire started and abruptly stopped, the alien's tail blaster stunning both officers. Another alien came from the vessel, dragging both men inside.  
  
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"It's been fun, really," Rogue thanked Cody.  
  
The two were sitting on a bench in a park, looking like a perfect couple. An alien stood on the rooftop of a nearby building, its tail blaster aimed at Rogue.  
  
"We can always do this again, anytime you want," Cody smiled.  
  
And kissed her. Rogue was stunned, first by the action and then even more stunned at the lack of effect her powers had on her old love. On the rooftop, the alien's weapon hissed silently. It had been modified to fire an invisible shot that would disable Rogue's powers, allowing the young man his kiss.  
  
Rogue pulled away from Cody after a long moment, panting a little. "Cody, how did you DO that?"  
  
He shrugged. "Just lucky I guess."  
  
Rogue felt herself go dizzy, and put a hand to her head. "I don't feel so good."  
  
"Rogue?" Cody asked as she collapsed into his arms.  
  
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Chapter 3: Gone  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Jean scanned the Institute again, focusing more intently on finding Rogue. But it was no use: Rogue was just gone, the building empty of her.  
  
"Jean?" Scott asked when he found her straining.  
  
"I can't find Rogue anywhere. It's like she's vanished."  
  
"She just might be out."  
  
"It's been almost twenty-four hours since she 'went out.' I doubt she's 'just out.'"  
  
"Okay, got me there."  
  
"We should look for her. She might be in trouble."  
  
"Rogue's a big girl. She can more than handle herself."  
  
"I know, but I can feel something isn't right."  
  
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Jean convinced Scott and Jubilee to help her look for Rogue, and would have brought Gambit along, had he been available.  
  
"Well, Salem Center is a Rogue-Free Zone," Scott declared after they had finished searching it. "Where could she be?"  
  
"The letter only mentioned Salem Center, nowhere else," Jean said. "We may have to ask a little more pushy."  
  
"Jean, that may get us in a bad spot with the professor," Scott warned.  
  
"I know, but this is important."  
  
They found a few people who had seen Rogue and Cody sitting together at a park bench. One had claimed that Rogue had glowed for a second with a yellow aura that vanished after its brief appearance, and that made the gang suspicious.  
  
"Why would Rogue glow yellow?" Jean wondered.  
  
"Maybe her powers are evolving or something?" Jubilee guessed.  
  
"It's possible," Scott agreed. "But I don't feel that's the right answer. There's also that this Cody guy is a fake or something like that, and that is a good possibility to explore."  
  
"What about the glow and stuff?" Jubilee asked.  
  
"We'll find that out when we learn the rest of the answers," Jean replied.  
  
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Rogue was sleeping, curled into a fetal position, within the alien vessel. Her clothes were undamaged, but her body was covered in green slime. The slime was keeping her in a dreamless stasis, until she was to awaken.  
  
The Queen stalked into the chamber imperiously, studying Rogue. The female human was perfect by their standards, an unusual beauty with powers beyond those of many others. Reaching out, the Queen rubbed almost all the slime off Rogue's face, causing the Southern Belle to groan and come to.  
  
"Where am I?" she asked. She was awake, but she could not move.  
  
"You are in my ship," the Queen said.  
  
Rogue studied the alien: Eight feet tall, slender and reptilian, scales and talons and a tall that had to be six feet long, with a rattler's rattle on the end. The Queen's red eyes and elongated snout called to Rogue, and she kept staring at the eyes, into their depths.  
  
"You should be honored," the Queen continued. "You alone, of all women on your world here, have been selected to become my successor. You, Rogue, will be the next Queen."  
  
Rogue wanted to ask more questions, to ask about Cody, but the Queen was finished for now, and she rubbed the green slime back onto Rogue's face, and the X-Man slept again.  
  
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Chapter 4: Found  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The X-Men flew the Blackbird through the skies of Salem Center, scanning again for Rogue, but knowing there was little hope of finding her here.  
  
A button on the panel blinked, and Scott pressed it. "Yes?"  
  
"Thought you might like to know, Cyclops," Logan said from the other end, "we got us some uninvited guests down in the desert."  
  
"And who would that be?" Scott asked.  
  
"Aliens, and they had a friend of ours."  
  
Jean gave a start. "Was it Rogue?"  
  
"Read my mind, darling."  
  
"Logan, stay where you are and wait for us to get there."  
  
"Will do, Red."  
  
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Jean, Jubilee, and Cyclops met Wolverine at a phone booth, the gruff X-Man grinning.  
  
"Thought you'd never get here. I was going to have all the fun to myself."  
  
"Where's Rogue?" Cyclops asked shortly.  
  
Wolverine shrugged at the words and turned, leading the others on a short hike through the desert, not far from where they had met.  
  
In a small valley was the alien craft, lounging in the warm sands.  
  
"What's the plan?" Jubilee asked.  
  
"We go in there and get Rogue, plain and simple," Cyclops responded.  
  
"But not necessarily easy," Jean added.  
  
With a roar, Wolverine launched himself at the nearest alien, several of whom were keeping guard to make sure no one tried to enter uninvited.  
  
The alien creature was knocked onto the ground, and Wolverine cut him deep before jumping off to avoid a blast from behind. Cyclops blew that alien away, while Jubilee did the same, dazzling the outsiders at the same time.  
  
Jean strained to scan the vessel, but could get nothing more than a dull sensation telling her that Rogue was there. Nothing more came through, and she had to give up, using her telekinesis on several other aliens, who had rushed outside to back their comrades.  
  
Several blasted Wolverine at once. Cyclops knocked a couple down with his optic beams, but the other ones turned on him quickly, and he too dropped.  
  
Jubilee blasted one hard enough to knock it out cold, but its fellow scored a hit on her, knocking the young mutant unconscious. Jean put up a shield around herself, but forgot to make sure it went underneath her as a tail blaster popped up near her foot.  
  
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Chapter 5: Love In Cold Blood  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The Queen entered the chamber again, but this time four more mutants had joined Rogue. The Queen was rather pleased this rescue attempt had happened, as it gave Rogue more subjects for when she became the new Queen.  
  
Wiping slime off their faces, the Queen watched them wake up.  
  
"Rogue!" Jean gasped.  
  
"Jean? What are y'all doing here?"  
  
"Trying to save you," Cyclops answered.  
  
"Ain't doing too good a job, though," Logan said.  
  
"Where are we?" Jubilee asked, looking around.  
  
"As I told young Rogue, you are inside my craft," the Queen responded. "And soon you will all become like Rogue."  
  
"What? You're going to turn us into some kind of human leeches?" Jubilee asked, confused.  
  
"No, I mean that you will be transformed into creatures like myself. We have developed and injected with the virus that Rogue is filled with."  
  
"Not good," Jean said, glancing down at her still-human body.  
  
"The change has yet to happen, but it will, rest assured," the Queen said. "In fact, if you doubt me, take a look at your friend Cody..."  
  
She stepped aside to reveal another reptilian alien, this one wearing a tattered shirt and tattered pants.  
  
Rogue felt like she should say something, but she wanted to sleep more, and it was so warm and comfy here, even though it was slime she was covered in. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep more, but didn't get far without the slime covering her face.  
  
The Queen grinned toothily and reached out, pulling Rogue from the wall and cradling her like a baby. The mutant did not respond to this, but merely kept her eyes closed, still trying to sleep.  
  
"You can't do this!" Cyclops said. "We're living people! We have wills and lives of our own!"  
  
"True, but the needs of the many often outweigh the needs of the few," the Queen replied smoothly. "I need a successor, and although Rogue is human for now, she will become like me and lead her new people."  
  
No sooner had the Queen spoken than green scales began sprouting on Rogue's skin, covering her entire body.  
  
"See?" the Queen asked. "Rogue is becoming something wonderful. She is greatly honored, as you should be."  
  
Alien subordinates entered the chamber and covered the X-Men's faces with the slime again, knocking them out.  
  
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Xavier was brooding again. It had been a month since the alien species had taken his X-Men, his children, from him, turned them into members of the said species, and then left, as if it hardly meant anything.  
  
Xavier had been forced to rebuild the ranks of his team, asking other mutants to join. Storm had to become leader of the X-Men now, with Cyclops gone, and several other mutants would take the places vacated by Jean, Jubilee, Logan, and Rogue. He could only pray things like this didn't happen again.  
  
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AUTHOR: Short and crappy, but not TOO bad. READ N REVIEW! 


End file.
